


All the Weird Things

by hideeho



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Banter, M/M, Pre-Relationship, episode 4x03 coda, with a touch of pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29279334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hideeho/pseuds/hideeho
Summary: He knows things.Practical things. Things learned by necessity and experience.Buck, on the other hand, seemingly knows a little bit about everything. It’s a bit daunting the information he can hold underneath those curls.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 51
Kudos: 447
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	All the Weird Things

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to Katie for being my amazing beta!

He knows things.

Practical things. Things learned by necessity and experience. 

Eddie knows how to change a flat tire, fix a leaky faucet, cut open a man’s chest so he can breathe. 

Buck, on the other hand, seemingly knows a little bit about everything. It’s a bit daunting the information he can hold underneath those curls, even if some of it is more like science fiction than anything else. 

He has an endless curiosity matched only by Christopher’s, as if the world was some marvelous thing to unravel instead of a series of obstacles to overcome. Eddie tries to remember when he last had that sense of wonder, but maybe he never did. It’s funny how you can miss something you never had to begin with. 

The thing is, he knows weird things too. Not like Buck, but still. 

He knows goat yoga can provide the best resistance for a plank, because his best friend was laid up in bed depressed and he was desperate for options to lure him back out in the world. 

He knows 7.5 million acres are impacted by wildfires each year. 

He knows there are roughly 120 helicopter accidents in the U.S. each year. 122 in 2019, 121 in 2018 and 123 in 2017 to be exact. Not that anybody needs him to have those numbers on hand for anything. Only, there are roughly 120 helicopter accidents in the U.S. each year and he has been working for two of them after barely surviving his own crash. 

It’s a conspiracy or a joke, surely. Maybe a bit of both. Either way, he can’t bring himself to sleep no matter how exhaustion weighs down his bones. Not when he knows the dreams likely to find him. 

He was so sure he’d be pulling another teammate’s body from the wreckage of a copter. He was so sure he was going to be too late yet again. 

He finds himself glancing over at Hen, still asleep like she was two minutes ago with her forehead pressed against the glass of the truck as they amble through Texas on the I-10. 

“Now who’s staring?”

Eddie rolls his eyes in deflection. “Shouldn’t your eyes be on the road?”

“I’m multitasking,” Buck shoots back with a grin, taking his hands off the wheel for a brief second just to get under Eddie’s skin. 

“Ten and two or I’m telling Bobby.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Buck gasps in faux betrayal, one hand clutching his heart and most definitely not on the wheel. 

“Try me.”

“You do that and I’ll tell Karen about your new obsession with her wife.”

“Jealous?” That does the trick. Buck’s attention is firmly back on the road, his neck flushed with red splotches. “Are you getting a sunburn? I told you to put on some sunscreen.”

“What? No. Shut up,” Buck mumbles, the color on his neck deepening. 

“Don’t tell me this is still about the Firefox thing. You said she added you back,” Eddie points out, finding it hard to believe Buck had managed to get himself blocked already when he had been driving the last four hours. Then again, he had seen some of those old posts from before he came around. 

“No, this is about you looking over at Hen every two minutes since we got on the road.” 

“Don’t exaggerate.” Buck isn’t exaggerating. Eddie knows he isn’t exaggerating. It just-

He saw the helicopter go down. He heard the mayday and warning alarms ringing in his ears, harsh and finite. How many times can a team get lucky? With Buck and his need to cheat death every six months, it was only a matter of time before that luck ran out. 

Because yeah, you bet he knows the odds of being in a bombing, or a tsunami, or choking at a restaurant. These are the things you learn when you’re best friends with Evan Buckley. Not to mention the fact that he and Hen had both survived gunshot wounds, helicopter crashes, and nearly being buried alive. The fact the three of them were together in one piece defies all reason. It would take a much smarter person than him to run those odds. 

“You’re staring again,” Buck singsongs. 

“Eyes on the road,” Eddie sulks, looking pointedly straight ahead, each mile bringing him closer to his parents’ house. Honestly, he’d much rather think about near death experiences. Raging wildfires have nothing on family dinners with his parents.

He knows how this will go. He has known since he begrudgingly accepted their offer (ultimatum) to stop by. 

He’ll ask how they’ve been. His mother will say he’d know if he was around more and how it would be nice to see her grandson, as if they haven’t facetimed every night this week while Chris is at Abuela’s. 

Buck and Hen will come in with the awkward save. Hen will talk about her wife and kids. His father will make some comment about how it must be nice to still have a parent at home when she leaves. 

Eddie will kindly remind them that he doesn’t leave Chris often and that this was a great way to earn emergency overtime. His mother will then come in for the kill by pointing out that if he wanted to fight fires in Texas he could do that living in El Paso. 

And that will be the point he stabs himself in the eye with a fork. 

Metaphorically. 

Probably. 

It’s going to be great. 

“Honestly man, I can’t tell if you have to shit or what’s going on with you,” Buck states, an edge of worry underneath his carefree tone. 

“I’m playing out a fight in my head.” 

“Are you winning?”

“Not even close,” Eddie admits with a sigh, running his hand through his hair. 

“So who is kicking your ass in this imaginary fight of yours?”

“My parents.” 

“Ah,” Buck says simply, tapping his fingers against the wheel. “I’d offer advice, but I’ve never really been a big hit with parents.”

Something about the comment slithers in his mind. He knows all sorts of things about Buck, some things he’ll never be able to scrub from his mind, but he knows next to nothing about his parents. Sometimes silence speaks the loudest. He has a feeling this is one of those times. 

“I don’t know, I’m a parent. I like you well enough,” Eddie teases, turning to examine his face. Buck’s wearing a smile, but there is a tension to his jaw. Easy enough to miss if you didn’t know him, but, well, Eddie can tell. “It will be fine. I brought human shields for a reason.”

“So that’s why you invited us along.”

“All part of my master plan,” Eddie admits cheerfully. “I fully expect you to use the hose if it gets too bad. Besides, it’s not like you guys haven’t met them before.” His graduation and Shannon’s funeral; opposite ends of the spectrum. This will be relatively tame in comparison. 

“Well, I’ll be on my best behavior,” Buck says so earnestly it makes Eddie frown. He’s drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, his jaw tight as he looks ahead. Eddie has been so wrapped up in his own head that he has missed the very real fact that Buck is nervous. _Nervous_. As if he’s under any sort of requirement to make a good impression. 

He supposes he shouldn’t be surprised. For all his bravado Buck is actually reserved in new groups, quick to put on a facade instead of just being himself. As if he has something to prove, as if the real Buck isn’t enough. They’re opposites in that way. Eddie can go in and make a good impression right away, it’s only after people get to know him that they learn he’s not worth the time of day. Buck, however... Buck is the type of person that is abrasive at first, but once you get to know him it’s hard to imagine how anyone couldn’t love him. Eddie forgets that people can miss how amazing Buck is when they don’t know him. 

“You don’t need to be on your best behavior, Buck. Just be yourself. I promise, that’s enough.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Buck, you’re overthinking it. My parents are...My parents have very strong opinions, but so what? You’ve won over Chris, that’s the only one that matters.” 

“Oh yeah, and if Chris didn’t like me?”

“I’d ditch you for Firefox, obviously.”

“Ha. Ha,” Buck replies dryly. Then, after a beat, “you wouldn’t actually ditch—”

“No, Buck, I wouldn’t,” Eddie assures him quickly, reaching over to squeeze Buck’s shoulder. “You’re stuck with me, I’m afraid,” he adds, running his thumb along the line of his collarbone through the thin material of his shirt. “Someone has to keep you from getting yourself killed.” 

“Says the man who is still grounded from rappelling.” 

Eddie flips him the bird, which gets a smirk out of Buck. 

“You were pretty quick to go off with that other team,” Buck ventures slowly. 

“They needed a medic.” 

“No other reason?”

“Just making myself helpful, Buck, that’s all. Also, didn’t love the idea of being on shovel duty, but I wasn’t trying to ditch you.”

Buck nods as if satisfied, but there is still something in his expression that itches under Eddie’s skin. 

“Did it bother you that I went to help them?”

“No. Well, maybe. No, that’s stupid, we were there to help. I just felt...Left behind, I guess.” 

Ah.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you behind, Buck, and I certainly wasn’t trying to get rid of you.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?”

“I do,” Buck says softly, stealing a look over to him before returning his focus back on the road. The sun is going down, bringing out the blond in his curls, highlighting the red of his birthmark. It’s a good lighting for him; soft. He pulls out his phone, stealing a picture before he can talk himself out of it. “What are you doing?”

“Figured you need a new picture for the ‘gram now that you have all these new followers. It’s a good one, I promise. ”

“I hope you understand how old you sound saying ‘the ‘gram’,” Buck teases, earning a playful jab to the side from Eddie. “Hey, no distracting the driver!” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Silence settles upon them for a moment. Buck has one hand on the wheel, another resting against the bulk of his thigh. For a wild moment Eddie thinks about taking that hand in his own, fingers sliding together as they drive down the road. The crash of adrenaline, maybe. Or the need to let Buck know he’s not going anywhere, not as long as he’s wanted around. 

Or maybe it’s just because he wants to. 

“I’m glad we got to do this together. That you’re here to help me survive family dinner. No splitting up next time, I promise.”

“You don’t need to promise me that.”

“I know, I want to,” Eddie insists. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Eddie knows all kinds of things, but when it comes to Buck he only wants to know more. He wants to know why his eyes grow distant when his parents are mentioned. He wants to know what his hand feels like in his own, not in danger or fear but just because. He needs time, that’s all. 

Something he said once to Chim nags at the back of his mind, but he pushes it aside.

They have time, he knows it.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated!


End file.
